Finding Something New
by rock redemption
Summary: It wasn't just the two Sherman brothers, there was a sister. Nikki Sherman works as the bartender at The Ends of the Earth with her older brother Walter, her good friend Leo, and best friend WIlla. In between tending bar and helping Walter on cases, Nikki begins to fall for the Gypsy boy betrothed to Willa. The question remains: can she find something new at The Ends of the Earth?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

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"Hey Nikki," Leo greeted as he came in through the backdoor. "What's that you're listening to?"

I stopped humming along to the radio long enough to respond. "How to be a Heartbreaker. Cool song, right?"

"Sure, sure," said the big man as he took a seat at the bar and I placed a glass of homemade lemonade in front of him. "Any customers while we were gone?"

"Not a one," I sighed. "I don't think this bar could be more spotless and I'm seriously bored out of mind. Please tell me there's someone you guys need me to beat up or something." I'm ashamed to say that the last part was begging.

He laughed and smiled at me. Still chuckling, he took a sip of his lemonade and stared at me from over the glass. It wasn't long before I started to fidget. I glared at him, struggling to regain my composure in front of my boss.

"Why are you so eager to join us on jobs so often? You already have a real job that actually pays. Why take the risks?" He sounded more curious than anything, but I hesitated before answering.

"That's my brother out there," I said nodding toward the backyard where Walter had set up his latest contraption. I pulled out a nice clean, white wash towel and started wiping down the bar for the umpteenth time today. "If I can do anything to make his work any safer for him, I will. I don't care if he can defend himself perfectly fine. I've had just as much training as he has and, in some areas, more extensively. I will protect my brother and if not, I might as well pack up and go back to D.C.." I was staring down at the bar where my hand had paused in its slow circles somewhere along my tirade. "Besides, working here hardly counts as a real job if I'm not helping with the real work we do." It was a poor attempt at normalcy and it didn't fool the man at all.

"It sounds like you're trying to make up for something, like this is your penance," He said calmly, watching me slow my breathing back to normal and unclench my hands from the towel. "What is it you feel so guilty about?"

The tears welled up behind my eyes, but I wouldn't let them fall. "Nothing." I blinked, taking a deep breath, and looking up from the bar. "Since no one has come in today, I'm putting out the honor jar and helping Walter in the back. That okay with you, chief?"

Leo gave a small smile. "Yeah. Can't have you wearing down the wood in your boredom, now can we?"

I let out a small laugh and nodded before reaching under the bar, grabbing the jar Willa just loved to hate, and placing it carefully on the counter. "Done and I'm outta here." I'm not ashamed to say that in my hurry to get out from behind the bar, I nicked my left hip on the counter, and fell on the person coming around the corner. It was all in an honorable escape attempt, despite the imminent failure. "Oh, god. I'm so sorry," I said as I stood and held my hand to whoever it was I ran into.

"It's fine, Nikki," I heard my big brother say as he put his hand in mine.

"Oh," I commented dryly. "It's just you. Not so sorry anymore." By his laugh, I knew he knew I was kidding. He gripped my hand and I pulled him up off the floor.

"Pretty strong aren't you?" A voice spoke from behind Walter.

"Maybe. You a client?" I asked, not even looking at the stranger. I was more focussed on the newly formed dent in the wood of the bar from my side ramming into it. The very side that held my very much steel .45 Smith & Wissen. Not only was there a decent sized indent in the wood, but also in my side. I smoothed my hand over the wood and apologized to Leo in my head before rolling up the bottom of my shirt to check for any visible damage. Seeing nothing but the beginnings of a nasty looking bruise, I let my shirt fall to it's normal length. Adjusting it to cover the holster at my hip, I looked up to see everyone in the room staring at me. "What?"

Leo coughed lightly and the client went from gawking at me to staring at Leo as Walter grinned impishly. "What is it that you need found, Mr.?" He trailed off at the end, unsure of the client's name.

"What? Oh," the client smiled sheepishly. "I need you to find my grandmother's watch. It was stolen twenty years ago and never recovered. I need it to pay for my son's medical treatment." He fished around in his pocket before pulling out a photo and handing it to Leo. "It's worth fifty-thousand dollars."

I let out a short whistle at the price, but I knew Walter would need more to go on. Like, for instance, "And your name is…?"

"Oh, I thought this business was supposed to be anonymous," the client muttered, looking rather unsured.

Walter chuckled, falling lazily onto one of the bar stools behind him. "It's only anonymous for people breaking the law. You wouldn't happen to be breaking the law would you?"

The man swallowed thickly. "Me? No, of course not. I'm just going to go." He swiped the picture out of Leo's hand and quickly walked to the door without a backward glance.

"Well," Leo began. "That was interesting."  
Walter laughed. "Interesting, maybe. Nikki, you call the cops yet?" I nodded. "Good. Nice flash of the gun, by the way. Scared the poor man senseless."

I shrugged. "It wasn't on purpose. Sorry about the bar Leo." I grinned at him sheepishly. He waved me off. Turning back to Walter I asked, "So, what's the plan?"

"We didn't get the job, so no plan." He reached behind the bar and pulled out a beer, taking a swig of the foul liquid as he glanced at the whiteboard across the room.. "Monkey samurai or squirrel assassins?"

I laughed as I headed over to the board to write up the newest philosophical debate topic. "Squirrel assassins, definitely."

Walter didn't hesitate. "Defend."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

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"So, what's this case Isabel brought you?" I asked as I helped Walter set some stuff up in the backyard area.

"One of her classmates' dad died and she wants me to help find the killer," he muttered, obviously paying more attention to the seemingly random items than his little sister, i.e. me.

Despite my best attempts, I could feel my face morph into one of confusion. "But you don't find killers?" Without meaning to, it came out as a question.

"Well yeah," he shrugged. "But she really wants me to and-" He was cut off by the ruckus of two teenage gypsies yelling as they entered the courtyard. We shared a look of amused annoyance before he turned back to his experiments and I focussed in on their conversation.

"No, Timo," Willa whisper-shouted. "You can't ask again. Shadrick is only gonna move the wedding up if you bug him about it."

I knew I would regret it, but I asked, "What's wrong, Willa?" She visibly deflated when she saw Walter and I watching her and Timo.

Sighing, she spared the Gypsy boy an aggravated look and turned to face us fully. "Timo wants to ask Uncle Shadrick how much it would cost to end the engagement again." Stomping towards me, she didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around my waist and bury her face in my hair. It surprised me when it first happened, but now, her tactile personality was normal.

I lifted my arms around her shoulders and pulled her to me tightly. Calmly, I tried to get her to understand. "You know he's only trying to do what's best for you both. Neither of you want this marriage." I turned my face to watch Timo's reaction and bit back a smug grin when he nodded, having heard every word.

I felt her inhale deeply. "I know, but nothing we do is good enough. The wedding won't get called off and then we'll both be miserable."

I laughed and shrugged when I caught Walter's eye. I'd never really understand Gypsy drama or tradition. "What do you mean you'll be miserable? You're friends right?" She nodded. "Then you'll just be friends 24/7 instead of whenever you're here."

I could hear Walter chuckling as he wandered away from us, but it was Willa that I was paying attention to. When she didn't respond, I looked up towards Timo and pointedly looked from him to Willa a few times. I huffed when he jumped slightly and sort of ran over and wrapped his arms around her and me by default.

"She's right, ya know," he prompted. "We'd just be living together, but nothing much else would change."

I could feel Willa start to fight our hold on her, so I pulled my arms back. Standing to her full height, damn her for being taller than me, she looked away from us. "I know that," she bit out roughly. Timo and I glanced at each other briefly before staring at her confused. "What bugs me is how neither of you seem to care."

"Willa," I began. "Timo has been trying to find ways to break off the engagement. How can you say he doesn't care?"

She damn near growled at me. "You don't care!" At my shocked look, she went on. "You pretend to be unaffected by this, but you don't want us to be married either, do you?"

I took a step back, mindful of the experiments going on around me. "I want what's best for you, both of you," I added, glancing at Timo.

Willa didn't buy it. "Bullshit."

"Willa-" Timo stammered, but she was on a rampage.

"Nikki," Willa spoke in a softer tone. "You know what I'm talking about. Why won't you just admit it?"

I could feel Timo's stare on the side of my face, but I wouldn't look at him. "You know what, Willa, I have work to do." I turned away from the pair and started toward the back entrance to the bar. I didn't make it very far when one of them grabbed my arm and yanked. Startled, I slipped and felt gravity pulling me down. A pair of soft hands caught me, but not before my bruised side caught the edge of one of the tables. I gasped and clutched at my side.

"Shit, Nikki, you okay?" Timo questioned as he carefully lowered me fully to the ground.

I pressed my hand to my side and damn near snarled at him. "Do I look okay?" Seeing his wounded look, I sighed before requesting that he take me inside and asking Willa to go in ahead of us to prepare an ice pack. She nodded and scampered off as Timo just kind of stared at me. "What?"

He jolted and asked, "Do you need me to pick you up? Can you walk?"

I sighed at held my arms up to him. As he lifted me, I asked, "What would you do if I said yes to both questions?"

He didn't answer at first and I thought he wasn't going to, but as we neared the doorway, he cleared his throat. "I would pick you up anyway." Without giving me time to respond, he set me down at one of the tables and Willa showed up with the ice and a towel. As she rolled up the bottom of my shirt, Timo sucked in a quick breath. "How'd you manage that?"

I quirked my head as he pointed at my side. Looking down, I saw a mass of dark purple surrounded by red. The bruise encompassed a larger part of my side than I thought it would. "I body checked the corner of the bar."

"And the outline of a gun?" Willa asked as she pressed the ice to the purple monster.

I tensed up at the rush of cold and didn't respond for a minute. "I may have been wearing my firearm at the time."

I was blissed out by the cool on the bruise, but jumped when a finger poked at it. "Did it hurt before you fell?" Timo asked as he retracted his hand from my side.

Despite the distance, I swatted at him anyway and stuck my tongue out at him when he grinned. Willa cleared her throat and looked at me pointedly, prompting me to answer the question. "Yeah, but not too badly. I just tried not to focus on it." Of course that was when Walter walked in.

"You know that means you can't work the case right?" He directed at me as he pulled a beer out from under the bar. I started to respond with the typical 'I'm fine' when he raised his brow at me and I sunk into my seat, biting back the groan of pain that only would have proved his point. He smirked and glanced from me to Timo and Willa. "Let them nurse you back to health while Leo and I take care of this one. You can help on the next case, alright?" I nodded because there really wasn't much else I could do, but didn't respond otherwise. "Good. Timo, Willa, I expect you to take good care of my little sis when we're away, got it?"

They both nodded and I seriously wanted to smack them. As if he knew, Timo glanced at me from his seat across the table and smiled. I pouted, but returned the smile nonetheless. "So, what do gypsies do for fun when they have to stay in one place?" I asked as Walter walked out and they turned their attention to me.

They shared a look and shrugged in unison. "We don't really stay in one place," Willa said.

"Yeah, but we could just do one of your debate things, right?" Timo suggested as he stood and retrieved three glasses and a pitcher of lemonade from the fridge.

I nodded. "Okay. Superman or Captain America?"

Willa didn't even hesitate. "Captain America."

I spared Timo a glance, but he had already stood up to write our new topic on the chalkboard. Looking back to Willa, I nodded briefly. "Okay, defend."


End file.
